Air conditioning apparatus



Nov. 15, 1932. LEw|s 1,887,767

AIR CONDITIONING APPARATUS (GRAVITY ACTUATED) I Filed Aug. 14, 1930 7 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 --f\ F a 1 i l I Nov. 15, 1932. EWI 1,887,767

AIR CONDITIONING APPARATUS GRAVITY ACTUATED) Filed Aug. 14. 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 55 so :54 I i I: 1% E on I'll ZMMW Patented Nov. 18', 1032 cannon E. Lewis, on 'nmivmroma-nmmssora. assreuort r Lewis am. comm rxonnas, 1210. or mjnmmroms, mmmsora, a conroimrron for 'nmawnnnfq CONDITIONING arrana'rus (eitavrri i Application filed August 14,1930. Serialli'o. 415,117;

This invention relates. air conditioning.

apparatus and particularly to a device for humidifying, washing and heating. the air in dwellings, offices and buildings.

It is an object of 'm present invention to "provide a comparative y simple humidifying device wherein the flow or circulation of air is actuated by ravity rather than a fan or impeller and w erein the circulating 311' is 1. thoroughly washed and efliciently humidified in its passage throu h a flue.

A further object 1's to provide a comparatively inexpensive humidifier of the gravityactuated t pe having a high evaporative capacity and operativeto prevent discharge of unevaporated particles into the room or building served. More specifically it is an object of my invention to provide an efiicient humidifier and I air conditioner wherein a substantially vertical air treating flue is utilized having therein a heating device vfor raising the evaporative capacity of the air and for heating the air in its passage and having means disposed me- 2| dially and directed longitudinall of said flue for dischar ing finely divide particles of moisture wit in the flue and a deflector associated with said means for causing'sa'id' particles of moisture to be directed transaoversely and substantially radially of said means to fill the entire cross section of said These and other objects and advantages. of the invention will be fully setforth in the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings, lniwhich like reference characters refer to' similar parts throughout the several views, and in v v I F 1g. 1 is a view mostly in vertlcal section 33 of Fig. 1;

through am -embodiment of.-;minvention,-:- portions oft-the 1 ornamental casing, the'fflue, heating unit and tempering chamber:v being broken-away,;-: j 'f.

Fig-.12 is a verticals section-taken onjthe line 2-2-ofFig: 1;. '5

"Fig. 3 is a cross seotionzt-akenon the-line" 'Fig. 4 is a detail viewlshowing the-moisture distributing nozzle in -longitudinal:set tion and the distributing deflector associated therewith; 5:

Fig. 5 is a d tail perspective view 'of a portion of the nozzle, and I Fig. 6 is Jan electricaldiagram the control circuits; p r r In the embodiment illustrated in the drawings,-my entire'apparatus with the exce tion of the humidity-control isconveniently housed inan ornamental rectangular casing C having front, rear and side walls, a'closed top' and an open bottom. The casingis preferably supported in spaced relationto the floor by means of legs L; i :3

In the'medial portion" ofcasing-Ga sub- 75 stantially vertical air con'ditioning flue 8 is a mounted, said flue'having a closed lower end and'communicating atits upper end with a flaring cowl or discharge-hood 9. Discharge hood 9 may extend'across the entire front of .30 casing C. An elongated opening 10 is prol vided in-the upper portion of the front wall of casing C to permit the discharge. of the conditioned air and asuitable grating 11 may be disposed across said opening. Declined air intake passages 8a communicate with the lower end of flue '8, as shown, two of said intake passages being provided" at opposite sides of the flue. Within said passages a series of declined parallel deflector plates 12 are mounted adapted to divide the entering air, causing, the" same to pass inwardly into the central portion of the flue and-filling the entire cross section thereof.

In the'lower portion of flue 8 and disposed centrally thereof some distance above the upper edges of air intake passages 8a is a suitable moisture distributing nozzle 13 directed downwardly, longitudinallyof said flue. is essential to provide a nozzle which will discharge a finely divided or atomized conical spray and the nozzle as shown comprises a tubular body 13a, the upper end thereof being threaded for connection with a conduit or coupling 14. The lower portion of the nozzle has an enlarged internal passage at the outer end of which a disk 15 is clamped, said disk having a series of spiral passe es 15a pressed therein and extending theret rough. Another disk 16 is disposed beneath disk 15, disk 16 having a central discharge port 16a therein through which the moisture is distributed. Disks 16 and 15 may be clamped against the lower end of the nozzle body 13a by means of an annular cap 13b which may have threaded engagement with the exterior of the lower end of body 13a. Conduit or coupling 14 for the nozzle may be supported in horizontal position from one of the walls of flue 8 thereby properly positioning the nozzle medially of and longitudinally of the flue. The clamping cap 13?) of my nozzle may sup ort a deflection plate or disk 17, said disk eing dis posed concentrically of the nozzle and being of ,slightly greater circumference than the cross sectional area of the conical spray discharged at the plane of intersection with said spray. Supportin rods 17a may connect the cap with the periphery of the disk.

Directly above nozzle 13 and disposed transversely of flue 8 I provide a suitable heating unit, indicated as an entirety by the letter U and-which may conveniently be in the form of a tubular radiator having the headers 18 and 19 disposed at opposite sides of the flue, connected by a series of horizontal tubes 20, said tubes carrying transverse and vertically disposed fins 21 for increasing the area of heat transmission surfaces. The header 18 is connected by a short couplin 22 with a suitable tempering chamber 23. aid tempering chamber may comprise a cup-like casing having a removable top 23a secured thereto. The lower end of tempering chamber 23 is connected with a hot water or steam supply conduit 24 which may connect with the supply pipes of a circulating heating system. The header 19 of the heating unit is connected with a return conduit 25 Which may be connected with the return pipe of the circulating heating system. Within chamber 23 a tempering coil 26 is centrally disposed, the discharge end thereof being connected by curved conduit 27 with the nozzle coupling or conduit 14. ater under pressure is supplied to the tempering coil and nozzle by means of a water supply pipe 28 which is connected with a suitable filter or strainer 29, the discharge end'of said strainer connecting with the intake end of a valve casing 30 having mounted therein, as diagrammed in Fig. 6, a solenoid orelectro-mag netically operated valve 30a for controlling the water supply, the discharge end of casing 30 being connected b a curved conduit 31 with the intake end 0 tempering coil 26. Electric service wires for supplying the coil of the solenoid valve may extend through a suitable conduit 32 connected with the bottom of valve, casing 30.

thermostatically operated circuit control 33 of the conventional immersion type is supported from the top 23a of the tempering chamber and the well or immersion portion of the device extends within the central part of the chamber substantially concentric with the tempering coil 26.

As clearly shown in Fig. 6, the thermostatically operated circuit control 33 as well as a humiditycontrol 34 are connected in series with the electromagnetic coil of solenoid valve 30a. The humidity control 34 may be of any 7 suitable type wherein an element responsive to variations'in the humidity of air to which it is subjected controls the opening and closing of an electrical circuit. The solenoid valve is so constructed that when its magnetic coil is energized the valve will be opened permitting passage of water through the tempering coil and into nozzle 13. Obviously the solenoid valve will not be opened unless circuits to both tempering control 33 and humidity control 34 are closed. At the bottom of-flue 8 an inverted pan-shaped sound absorbing screen 35 is mounted, said screen covering a substantial portion of the bottom, being centrall disposed thereof. Below screen 35 a drain pipe 36 communicates with the bottom of the flue for removing any accumulation of water.

Operation In operation a substantial draft of air will flow upwardly through flue 8 due to the effect of gravity and the heat suppliedby heating unit U. It will be noticed that this air must enter the bottom of the flue through the intake passages 8a, being divided by the several deflector plates 12 which causes the air to enter in downwardly directed streams, the air being uniformly distributed throughout the cross sectional area of the lower portion of flue 8.

No moisture will be discharged from nozzle 13 until thesteam, water or other circulatin heating fluid in tempering chamber 23 and header 18 is up to a predetermined temperature adequate to properly heat the air and raise the same to the desired evaporative capacity and furthermore until the humidity within the room or building served by my apdescribed, discharges a whirling conical;

spray of finely atomized particles of -II l( )lS-. ture. This conical spray strikes against d flection plate 17 and causes the moisture tobe deflected substantially horizontally, transversely of the flue 8, emanating from the disk or plate 17 and being projected substanticulated portion of the radiator or heating unit. The heating unit raises the evaporative capacity of the air and quickly causes complete evaporation of any unevaporated particles present in the air at the time it strikes the fins and tubes of the radiator. The humidified air continues to travel upwardly through flue 8 into the dischar e hood or cowl 9, which it will be noted extends horizontally across the top of ornamental casing C and diverges from the upper end of the flue. The height and other dimensions of the hood 9 are such that some small amount of pressure will be created in the hood causing an even distribution or discharge of the conditioned air from the several apertures of the grating 11.

In addition to being thoroughly and efliciently humidified the air in its travel through flue 8 is completely washed, since it must pass through the transverse spray or mist set up throughout the cross section of the flue between nozzle 13 and the cooperating deflector plate 17, and the air is also heated by the heating unit U.

As soon as the humidity of the air in the room or building is brought up to a predetel-mined point, the humidity control 34 opens the circuit through the coil of the solenoid valve and the valve element is seated, shutting oif the supply of moisture to flue 8. Air of course will continue to travel through the flue and will be heated in so doing.

Any drops or particles of moisture which are not evaporated by the upward flow of air through the bottom of flue 8 will fall down upon screen 35, through which some air is circulated and some of this dropping mois ture will be evaporated and any accumulation thereof will be removed from the device through the drain pipe 36. Screen 35 receives the dropping particles of moisture and prevents noise and sound which would be present if the particles dropped-directly upon the metallic bottom of flue 8.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that I have invented a simple, comparatively inexpensive and highly eflicient air conditioning having 'a evaporactive capacity, efl'ected without the .use of im pellers and fan's and providedfwith eificient controls connected in alcircu itl a water supply valve in such a manner thatmoisture will not be distributed forfllinniidifying the air; until the radiator tir l eating unit is brought .up to: the proper temperature and until the humidity of the air in the room or building served by the device has fallen below a predetermined point.

It will of course be understood,tliat various ch'anges may bemadein thetformgildetails and proportions of the i parts; without departin from my' invention, whichgenerally state consists in the novel .partsjand combinations of parts and devicesdisclosedin the foregoing specifications and pointed out in the appended claims.-

What i s claimed f is a I In air conditioning" apparatus an upwardly extending flue having an air intake passage adjacent the lower end thereof and having a substantially horizontally disposed air discharge cowl diverging from the u per end of said flue, said 'air intake passage aving a series of spaced divider lates adapted to cause entering air to be distributedsubstantially uniformly throughout the :cross sectional area of the flue, a heating unit disposed transversely of the medial portion of the flue and having air passages extending therethrough, a water supply nozzle mounted adjacent said heating unit and directed longitudinally of said flue and a deflector plate associated with said discharge nozzle and adapted to deflect moisture transversely and substantially radially of said flue.

2. In air conditioning apparatus, an-u wardly extending flue havin an air inta e passage adjacent its lower end and an air discharge passage adjacent its upper end, a nozzle disposed within said flue and directed downwardly longitudinally of said flue, said nozzle bein connected with a source of water supply un er pressure and adapted to discharge a finely divided spray of moisture,

a deflecting plate mounted below said 'nozzle and axially alined therewith for deflecting said spray transversely and radiallv throughout the cross sect onal area of said flue and a heating unit havin a core traversing the cross sectional area 0% said flue above said nozzle, said core comprising a multiplicity of very small heated passages extending longitudinally of said flue and adapted to entrain particles of moisture and va orize and eliminate the same in the upwar passage of the air.

3. The structure set forth in claim 2, wherein said passages are defined b straight parallel walls extending longitu inally of said flue.

4. In air conditioning apparatus, an up gassageadjacent its lower end and an air ischa'rge passage adjacent its'upper end, a nozzle'dis osedwithin saidflue and directed downwar 1ylongitudinallly-ofsaid flue, said If nozzle bein connected wit a source of water supply un er pressure and adapted to dis-' charge afinelydivided spray of moisture, a defl'ectin plate mounted below said nozzle and axia lyalined-therewith, for deflecting 10 said *sp'ray transversely; and radially throughout the cross sectional area of said flue and aradiator having a core traversing 7 across sectional area of said-flue anddisposedsome distance above said nozzle, said "18 core-being provided with a multiplicity of fins defining a multiplicity of straight, narrow passages extending longitudinally of said flue and adapted to entraln particles of moisture and vaporize and eliminate the 2 same in the upward passage ofthe air.

I In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

- CARROLL'E. LEWIS. 

